Feeling blue in the Bay State

The first thing is not to run as a Republican. If you do happen to stumble across one of them, take a photo, because the GOP in Massachusetts has truly become an endangered species. What a wipeout.

The second thing is to embrace failure. On the national scene, it was President Barack Obama's amazing ability to convince voters that his failed presidency was actually a success because without him things would have been worse.

And anyway, he really had nothing to do with the country's stagnant economy, high unemployment, record poverty and food stamps, high gas prices, and sky-high borrowing and deficit spending. It was all somehow Mitt Romney's fault.

Obama turned all of Romney's success as a businessman into failures, and all of his own failures as president into successes, and the people, dazed by Obama's campaign brilliance and a toady media, bought it. Who are you going to believe, Obama asked, me or your lying eyes? The people believed him.

In Massachusetts, the voters -- Democrats and independents -- simply decided to stamp out the Republican Party once and for all.

It turned out of office the lone moderate Republican voice in the state's congressional delegation when it voted to elect political newcomer Elizabeth Warren, the radical Harvard professor and self-acclaimed initiator of the Occupy Wall Street movement, to replace Republican moderate Scott Brown.

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Brown occupied the "Kennedy seat" -- held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy -- for two years, after winning a special election. On Tuesday, Brown was overwhelmed by the same voters who gave Obama an expected big victory in Massachusetts. Warren, a divisive class warrior, replaces Brown, a unifying class act.

This means that Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will have political newcomer Warren added to their coalition of knee-jerk liberals they can count on in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate.

Also going down in defeat in the state's North Shore 6th Congressional District was Richard Tisei, another GOP moderate, who was beaten by ethically challenged incumbent Democrat John Tierney, who professed to have no idea how illegal-gambling money from his brothers-in-law got into his household. Yeah, right.

In the state's other high-profile congressional race, Democrat Joe Kennedy III, 32, handily defeated Republican Sean Bielat to assume the 4th Congressional District seat vacated by longtime U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, who retired. The Kennedy flame has apparently been restarted in Massachusetts, and the torch passed to a new generation.

Tisei's defeat and the defeats of all the other Republican congressional challengers, means that all nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, as well as its two U.S. senators, are Democrats. And all the statewide constitutional officeholders, from Gov. Deval Patrick down to State Auditor Suzanne Bump, are Democrats, and that Democrats handily control both branches of the Massachusetts Legislature at the Statehouse.

So if you love one-party government rule, welcome to Massachusetts, and prepare to get hammered, as Warren would say.

Still, there were some big winners in Massachusetts. U.S. Sen. John Kerry, who is seeking to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was a winner, as were Gov. Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino, the Big Three.

Kerry and Patrick campaigned hard for Obama, while Menino helped put Warren over the top with the Boston vote. Kerry's sharp criticism of Romney, and his fawning over Obama, are bound to help him win Clinton's job when she steps down at the start of Obama's second term. It is a job Kerry has coveted for some time.

If that happens, Kerry would have to resign his Senate seat, and Patrick would appoint someone to fill the vacancy until the next election in 2014. This would be the second time Patrick filled a Senate vacancy. The first was when he named longtime Kennedy aide Paul Kirk to fill the seat upon Kennedy's death. Kirk did not subsequently run for the job.

And, speaking of Patrick, it is safe to say that the governor, who is not seeking re-election to a third term in 2014, can write his own ticket. He is expected to go into the private sector when he leaves office and keep his political options open, although it is a sure bet his name will be floated for a high Obama appointment.

A lot will be happening n Massachusetts. So stick around and get hammered. Just don't tell anyone you voted Republican.

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